Reflavoring Oathbreaker Paladin

[A Fat Dragon]

So, I’ve got a Paladin, Oath of conquest, Dragonborn LG (It’s easier to play a LG Oath of Conquest when you’re playing a Dragonborn). Very fun character, pretty good stats, etc. etc.

However, as before, I said I wanted to try the Oathbreaker Paladin subclass. Now, me being me, I’d rather not be wholly evil, and instead neutral, but seeing as how I am playing a Dragonborn, I’d probably just play some edgy Lawful Good character. I’m curious on if there is a good way to sort of reflavor the subclass, possibly to be a more Ronin type of deal? Still a Paladin, but kind of more of a wanderer/sell-sword beyond that?

[Arkhios]

Plenty of Oathbreaker's features are written to represent evil characteristics, so these features would have to be altered somehow. For example, while necromancy isn't evil per sé, controlling undead to fight by your side is still slightly culpable, and empowering fiends and undead with aura of hate also has a quite "evil" feel to it. At least those should be made more neutral.

[A Fat Dragon]

I was thinking of changing the aura to buff allies, and perhaps balance it by excluding my own character. Change the control undead to control Elemental?

[Greywander]

A class is just a collection of mechanics, but there is a degree of fluff attached. Oathbreakers have a lot of dark and undead themed abilities, so you would necessarily be some sort of necromantic paladin, if such a thing exists. You might look to Odin for inspiration, as he is, among many other things, one of the Norse gods of death, but generally considered to be one of the good guys.

Actually, I could see reflavoring it into a sort of grim reaper type paladin. You could still be LG, and for your tenets you would be responsible for guarding graveyards, performing peoples last rites, and laying the dead (and undead) to rest. You would use undead when necessary, but you might treat them more reverently rather than just a sack of meat to send into the grinder.

Either of those could work.

[Arkhios]

I was thinking of changing the aura to buff allies, and perhaps balance it by excluding my own character. Change the control undead to control Elemental?

Remember that an Oathbreaker has broken his/her vows so I'd find it rather odd someone else would be "inspired" by that. Maybe change the aura to something that only affects you, though probably not additional damage at least.

Control Elemental seems unfitting. Maybe Control Beasts instead.

[A Fat Dragon]

You might look to Odin for inspiration, as he is, among many other things, one of the Norse gods of death, but generally considered to be one of the good guys.

Actually, I could see reflavoring it into a sort of grim reaper type paladin. You could still be LG, and for your tenets you would be responsible for guarding graveyards, performing peoples last rites, and laying the dead (and undead) to rest. You would use undead when necessary, but you might treat them more reverently rather than just a sack of meat to send into the grinder.

I love Norse mythology, that actually might be really cool. Could give the character a Norse name, and Dragons are pretty common in Norse mythology. And, we already have a shadow monk, and a Grave Domain cleric, so that might be really fitting.

[A Fat Dragon]

Remember that an Oathbreaker has broken his/her vows so I'd find it rather odd someone else would be "inspired" by that. Maybe change the aura to something that only affects you, though probably not additional damage at least.

Control Elemental seems unfitting. Maybe Control Beasts instead.

Also, I’m interested in this. How would you view it? I wouldn’t necessarily have the character have no Tenets, but have more vagabond-y, kind of somber tenets.

[Unoriginal]

Let's be practical, here. To help you, we need to know:

what parts of the Oathbreaker makes you want to play the class?

It's not the fluff, from what you said, and the undead stuff doesn't seem to attract you much either. So, what does?

[Arkhios]

Also, I’m interested in this. How would you view it? I wouldn’t necessarily have the character have no Tenets, but have more vagabond-y, kind of somber tenets.

A paladin who broke his/her oath to become an Oathbreaker wouldn't have tenets, but since you wouldn't mind having tenets, that wouldn't really count as an Oathbreaker any longer.

I might be interested in homebrewing this "Knight Errant" as a neutral alternative for Oathbreaker, actually. (Ronin usually refers to Samurai who have lost their master for some reason, so a Knight Errant is more appropriate name in that regard... Unless you envisioned your paladin as a Samurai to begin with! :smallwink:)

Looking at the Pathfinder's version of Knight Errant/Ronin (an opposite to a typical Cavalier/Samurai, respectively), At 2nd level they received Self Reliant, which could work as a Channel Divinity, in addition to Control Animals (or Beasts, whichever sounds better). Although the Pathfinder feature doesn't quite fit in Channel Divinity design format, so I'd probably change it to something that grants you an amount of Temporary Hit Points instead, as an action.

At 8th level Pathfinder's Knight Errant gained Without Master, which could pretty easily be converted to a 7th level replacement for the aura: "[Your] fierce independence allows [you] to overcome staggering odds. [You] can summon up this willpower as a [reaction] whenever an attack would reduce [you] to [__] 0 hit points but wouldn't kill [you], to instead be at 1 hit point and conscious. [You] can use this ability once [before you must finish a short or long rest to do so again]." (I used quotation marks here because this is more or less the same ability as it was in Pathfinder. I only changed the parts within brackets and removed design concepts that do not exist in 5th edition).

The 15th level Supernatural Resistances isn't bad, to be honest, though I'd just rename it to Resolve. Otherwise it could remain unchanged.

Dread Lord has to be changed. I'm in bit of a hurry right now so I'll have to look into it later.

Also, the oath spells would need to change.

[A Fat Dragon]

I like the aura of damage-boost, the Super-Natural defense, and the ability to control a type of creature as a Channel Divinity ability.